Leaving Well Enough Alone
by Bakerady
Summary: Bolt decides to stay with Mittens in the makeshift new home.
1. Chapter 1

"Bolt! Wake up!" Mittens loudly whispered at Bolt, trying to keep from waking the hamster. "Hmm...Wha..." Bolt stammered slowly opening his eyes to see his friend excitedly trying to wake him.  
"Come on Bolt, I have a surprise for you!" Bolt was tempted to ask if the "surprise" couldn't wait until later. After all, the things she had shown him before were great, but he couldn't see the urgency. However, something about the way Mittens was jumping around with a gleam in her eye piqued his curiosity. Bolt rolled onto his feet and shook himself, getting stray dirt out of his fur. "OK lets go." Mittens beamed at him and turned to lead him to what she had been working on. Bolt followed Mittens a couple of blocks until they came into a grassy clearing. Bolt could see small squares in the distance as they walked on He also noticed that despite the fact that they were walking toward a dump, it didn't smell bad. He figured it was due to all the pines nearby.  
"Okay Bolt, cover your eyes!" Mittens said enthusiastically. "Aww Mittens, come on!" Bolt complained. He did not like not being able to see. It always made him feel helpless. "Oh, come on Bolt just for a little bit, it is a surprise after all." Mittens insisted as they continued to walk. "Mmm, alright." Bolt conceded, rolling his eyes, but also closing them. "Okay, okay. No peeking Mittens said quickly as they approached the boxes.  
She ran over to them and turned to face Bolt." all right, now open." Directed Mittens excitedly. "Bask in the glow baby." Mittens said gesturing to the boces, that Bolt could now tell were really make shift houses. "Just let me give you the grand tour."  
Mittens ran around the boxes so that she was in between both of them. "Mittens I..." Bolt stammered out before being cut off. "This one, this one's mine..." Mittens gestured to her right "...and this one is all yours." Said Mittens in an accomplished tone, gesturing to her left. "Mittens I..." Bolt tried again, but was again interrupted. "I found this really soft pillow thing for you." Mittens stepped into Bolt's box. "And get this. I found some syrofoam, and I stuffed in inside, which I thought was both kind of creative and ironic. You know what I mean?" Mittens said quickly, smiling at Bolt, from inside the box. "Mittens I don't think that..." Bolt tried for a third time, almost getting a complete thought out before getting cut off again. "Ohh! Ohh!" Said Mittens excitedly kicking out the stick holding one half of the box so that she was now in a closed container. " Check it out. Total privacy, and completely sound proof." "Yeah well I don't think that I..." Bolt said quickly trying to get out his thought before being interrupted again, but failed. "Okay, I lied It's not sound proof. But you know..." This time Bolt cut Mittens off. " Mittens... I don't know if I can stay here!" Bolt said quickly and loudly, before Mittens had a chance to interrupt again.  
"Wha... what do you mean Bolt?" She said slowly stepping out of the box and approaching Bolt with sad, hurt eyes. "I..." He was about to tell her that he had to go back to his person, Penney, but something occurred to him. Penney hadn't been there for him. Nothing they had done together had been real. Take away the Green eyed man, and what did you have? A bag of kibble, and an occasional pat on the head? Mittens, and Rhino on the other had had been with him through the good times and the bad. Mittens had shown him what it really meant to be a dog.  
She had shown him how to get food. She had taken care of hi when he was at his most Na'ive. She always gave him whatever she had. She hadent even used the bed she had made for her own box. She had given it to him. Her box looked pretty empty.  
And Rhino had always been there too. He had broken him out of the animal catcher's truck, and then gave him the confidence he needed to rescue Mittens. With out them both he wouldn't have had a chance of making it this far. They were his real family, they had proven that they cared about him. As much as he wished Penney could have been his family, the more he thought about it the more he realized that she wasn't. How could he turn his back on Mittens and Rhino now. "Nothing Mittens never mind. It's perfect." Bolt said looking at Mittens sincerely. "Aw Bolt I knew you'd love it!"Mittens said hugging Bolt roughly with a huge smile on her face, twisting him around so that she was standing where he was. "Come on, I want to show Rhino." She said as she turned around and sprinted towards the trash cans, with Bolt close behind.

I appreciate reviews, and to those that like my Kung fu panda fan fiction, I'll be going back to that project soon enough


	2. The Storm

The new chapter of "Leaving Well Enough Alone" is now up and running. This will be the last update for about two weeks, I really need to get on top of my kung fu panda project. I have two beta readers now, Sophie5 and Xin Yi. With their help my work will drastically improve. I really need to credit them for any improvement that you may see, and I send a special thanks to them. Any way, without further ado, I present the new chapter of "Leaving Well Enough Alone", enjoy.

Bolt slowly opened his eyes, waking up to the sound of rain. Bold didn't know where he was right away. Then, he turned his head and saw the"Freddie's Fridges" label that was on the box that had been his home over the last couple of weeks.

Mittens, Rhino and he had been having it pretty easy at their new home. When Bolt and Mittens had first tried to explain to Rhino why Bolt wasn't going back to Penny it had been difficult to get Rhino to understand why. He even thought that Bolt was abandoning her. Even after a lengthy conversation between the three of them, he still didn't understand, but at least he had come to a ben[e]ficial train of thought come to a benificial conclusion. He had somehow reached the idea that Penny had been working with the Green-Eyed Man all along. Bolt wondered why Rhino always came to notions that could never be possible in a million years, super bark their enimies, stop a moving train, that kind of thing. He figured it was because no one had ever directly explained to him that Bolt wasn't a superdog. It suited Rhino well enough, though. Rhino needed to believe that Bolt was super, that was his inspiration. So as long as they could help it, they wouldn't burst his had then went to see what they could find in the dump. It was a treasure trove of stuff. The things that people had thrown out were unbelievable. Bolt found a humongous bone. He had some fun chewing on and running around with that thing, but that wasn't what he was proud of finding. What he really felt accomplished for was the mattress he had found. It was partially flattened from the car motor that had been on top of it for who knows how long, but that would just make it fit better into the box, and it was still so soft. When Mittens was busy jumping around a bunch of yarn she had found, Bolt gripped the mattress with his teeth and began the long trudge back to Mitten's box. It was a perfect fit, and he was happy it wasn't for nothing. At the end of the day, everyone had found something. Mittens had more yarn than she knew what to do with. Rhino found a new blue and red striped ball; his old one had a crack in it, and besides, this one looked a lot cooler. Bolt, however, had the biggest smile in the group. Rhino and Mittens thought his smile was due to the bone Bolt had clamped between his teeth, but he couldn't wait to get back to the boxes. Mittens' reaction didn't let him down, either. When she went into her box, her eyes lit up, first with curosity, then with appreciation.

"Aww, you big lug, you didn't have to," Mittens said, hugging Bolt. Bolt had again proved to Mittens that she had a family now. A family Bolt and Rhino gave her. A family she had always wanted, but never had. She had humans that she had thought were family, but they'd abandoned her. Bolt, and Rhino on the other hand, had risked their lives and went to the pound to save her. She knew they would always be there. The appreciation in Mitten's voice was all the thanks Bolt needed.

Things had been getting a little worse lately, though. People had finally realized that there were wild animals going through the trash cans. The trash cans had been padlocked, and food from the cans was now inaccessible. The group had to go to the dump to find food. It took time to find edible food, and they had heard territorial barking in the distance when they stepped foot on the dump. No one had confronted them yet, though, and the food they did find was just as good as the food behind the restaurant. And the weather had been nice.

Well, except for tonight, of course. All day, it had looked like a hurricane was comeing. Now, it looked like the storm had finally come.

As Bolt turned over and got comfortable, he felt a drop of water fall into his fur. He slowly opened his eyes , and in the dull light radiating off of the various spotlights in the dump, he saw that the roof was soaked and was slowly caving in. As the rain steadily increased in force, Bolt worried that the boxes wouldn't hold up.

Sounds of rushing water were the only things Bolt heard as he was violently woken up when the roof caved in about ten minutes later. Water had been gradually building up on top of the box as the storm continued. Eventually, the roof couldn't take anymore and it, along with a couple liters or water, fell in on Bolt.

Bolt got up and ran as fast as he could, through the now-violent huricane. He barely had to exit what was left of his home, as he ran toward Mittens' and Rhino's box, which was not so far away.

"My box caved in," Bolt said as he stepped into the box. He was dripping wet at this point, and he hoped the other box was holding up better than his had.

"It's not much better over here," Mittens said, turning to look at Bolt. She was standing on her back legs, desperately trying to hold up the moosh that was the roof with her front paws. Rhino sat in the corner looking helpless. In these situations, Rhino didn't have much to contribute. He helped when he could, but his short stature, and being trapped in a ball, meant he couldn't always be of much help.

A blinding flash of lightning that streaked across the sky, followed by a booming crack of thunder that was all too close, made everyone jump.

"We have to get out of here, Bolt said as he turned and ran out of the box. No one argued. As Rhino followed, Mittens released her grip on the box, which very quickly collapsed, and followed as well. As soon as they were out of the box, the storm really hit them. Rain coming down so hard it felt like rocks falling from the sky, wind so strong it lifted Rhino's ball off the ground. Lucky for him, Bolt saw this. He dove and caught Rhino's ball midair between his teeth.

"Where are we going!" Mittens shouted trying to be heard over the storm.

"Tha Ump!" Bolt lisped on Rhino's ball, shouting as well struggling to be heard over the storm and his forced lisp.

"What!" Mittens shouted back, confused. Bolt didn't know how he was going to get Mittens to hear him. So instead he gestured for her to follow him, turned to run toward the dump, and hoped she followed.

As they both sprinted on, a crack of lightning streaked bright and fantastic right in front of them. Mittens and Bolt stoped dead in their tracks, shocked and terrified, as the streak toutched down in front of them. They probably would have stayed there, like statues in the blistering rain, gaping at the sky if Rhino hadn't yelled out suddenly.

"That was totally awesome!" Rhino shouted in his typical fanboy manner, not seeming to notice the imminent danger. Rhino's shouting and jumping around shook Bolt out of his daze. When Bolt started moving again, Mittens followed him.

They finally got to the dump, after what felt like hours.

"What now?" Mittens asked, wiping drenched fur out of her eyes[. She had never hated water more than she did right now. She felt stupid for having come here, here of all places. What had they expected to find at a dump in the middle of a hurricane? Bolt, on the other hand, was busy scanning the area for something useful. "Bolt...Bolt!" Mittens screamed at him, trying to get his attention, and annoyed that he was ignoring her.

"Over there." Bolt said, smiling, feeling accomplished that he had found something useful. He took off to the shelter he had found, an overturned wheel barrow with at least a dozen carpets on top of it. The carpets draped down on every side except for the front, which was jutting up in the air. The back end of the wheel barrow had sunken into the mud, making the front end stick up. Bolt set Rhino down, took a carpet,and went under the barrow laying it out so they didn't have to sleep in the mud. Rhino and Mittens followed close behind. As they laid out to sleep for the night, they huddled together in the back of the shelter, as howling wind ripped through the carpets and seemed to rip right through their bones.


End file.
